When I wrote The Onion Field, I realized that my first two novels were just practice.

I hadn't done anything in six years; I was just vegetating.

If you take 67 brush fires times 10 years, that's almost 700 right there. Those brush fires are incredibly dangerous, all those homes going down proved that.

I enjoy doing the research of nonfiction; that gives me some pleasure, being a detective again.

When I wrote The Onion Field, I realized that my first two novels were just practice.

The Onion Field, that one got pretty close to me because I was a cop when it happened. I saw some of the indifference that my police department showed to the surviving officer.

What is it about the component of fire? People have written about it. People have wondered about it.